ok, so this stupid knee is not behaving itself any better, or perhaps I’m not behaving any better since I’m not devoted to doing physical therapy all day everyday as my therapist would prefer. As a consequence, everytime I run…bam! knee pain.
boo hoo, right?
today I went on a morning walk, and noticed…1.5 mile in, that the stupid knee is hurting again. Boo hoo again!
So, while common sense would say, “if it hurts to run, then don’t run”, I have never been accused of having common sense. Naturally, i try to run.
What I’m thinking is that I would like to be able to run some…not much, just some. I would especially like to be able to walk without pain. That’s not too much to ask (is it?).
My meltdown (or ephinany whatever you call it) is that it’s a total bummer to think of not running. Ironically though, it’s the thing I’m most reluctant to do (?). A decent compromise might be to walk/jog and hopefully get this knee situation straightened out along the way, but dedicate most of my efforts to riding.
Damn it though.
See, now this means that I can’t do a tri this upcoming season, which will make my need to “race/participate/get my ass kicked” go unregarded. What’s a girl to do? Speedwalk a 5K and do organized rides? Somehow this leaves me feeling unfulfilled…
Boo hoo.
Please help. Perhaps my idea of a compromise isn’t a bad one, but darn the desire to “compete” (even though I’m a BOP’er in tri…lol).
Does anyone have a magic wand that can wave me back to 25 years old?
Swim/bike a lot, and keep doing your physical therapy until your physiotherapist says it’s okay to start running again. No running until your knee is fully healed (unless that is part of the therapy).
I think you have to think longer than the current race season. Yes, it’s possible that you won’t be doing any tris this year. So what? The important thing is to get healthy so you don’t have long term problems with this knee. You’re at a point now where you can’t walk on it for very long without pain. Do you want that to happen the rest of your life? Listen to your doctors and physiotherapists. Don’t run until they say it’s ok even if that’s for a year or more. Swim and bike and find another challenge to keep you occupied this year. How about a 5 km open water swim? How about a couple of centuries or bike races? Find another challenge and take the time to get your knee to heal properly. Good luck with it.
Kitty baby, I thinks there is only one solution: do your therapy faithfully, don’t slack on it. Keep going on the therapy, and you may be able to get a few races in this season.
I have knee problems as well (I’ve been diagnosed with "miserable alignment - really - that’s what it says) so I’ll always be limited on my running miles. What I’ve done for my “long” event is to enter a relay. I have a friend who’s a good runner, so we entered the Canadian half-iron du. I did the first two legs (8km run then 90km cycle) and he did the last leg. For me, I still got to race a longer “multisport event” - even if it was a little unorthodox in terms of distances/order (but I was able to train and race without injuring my knee). For him, he ran it as a stand alone half marathon. That did well as a “team” was just an added bonus.
Find a runner (or a triathlete looking to just do a run) and enter the team/relay cagetory - you still get to do two events.
Have you considered or discussed pool running with your medical/therapy team? This might permit you to still “run” and benefit from not being inactive while permitting whatever ailment you have to heal/improve until you can return to regular running.
While it does depend on your diagnosis, I am living proof that just because you can’t/won’t run in February does not mean you can’t do a tri this season.
I had run/jogged for years but ended up with knee pain - later diagnosed as ITBS. The pain was never so much I couldn’t run but I got tired of eating Aleive and having to ice down after every run so I basically took 3 years off from running and got back into cycling. During those 3 years I biked alot. I did run a little but not with any regularity. In the fall of 2003 I decided I wanted to do a HIM in 2004 (it had been 16 years since my last trialthon.) I did not start running until early March. The whole summer I never ran more than 3 times per week and many weeks I only ran twice. I generally only ran between 4 - 5 miles per workout. I did hit the bike hard though.
I finished my 1/2 in August. (5:18 - although the run was pretty gruesome). My knee never hurt during training or the race.
Stick with your goal - it might become unobtainable at soem point but it is way too early in the year to give up yet. Just work around your current troubles.
I had a similar situation about 3 years ago, when my hip was all fubar’d due to piriformis issues. I couldn’t run for 4 months. Really. I swam and rode and did weights. I did no racing. I think the first race I did after starting to run again was a sprint about 3 months later (after starting to run again). Mentally it was so hard to not run. I loved to run, I loved the high I got after running, I loved the quiet time by myself on the trails… sigh… it was a real low point for me. I was cranky beeyatch from hell for quite some time. I even got snarly at my training partner, because I was jealous that she could still run…
But once I got the all clear, I knew I could achieve pretty much anything I wanted to achieve. 8 months after the all clear, I did my first marathon, 12 months after the all clear, I did my first ultra. but it only works if you can have the discipline to take your treatment seriously. Rushing will never pay off.
I spent 6 months in various casts after surgery to reattach some ligaments and set some screws to fix a broken leg (which I got running, by the way!)
I too had a couple of false starts by trying to rush the process, got depressed, fat and discovered a taste for Jack and Coke.
I finally completed the PT and was released with the following words of wisdom: “You will have a complete reocovery, but sometimes you just have to run through the pain.”
Last week I ran a 10 month high 14 miles. Mind you, that was the weekly total. Pathetic really, but it’s a start. So, do everything the PT tells you and ask for more until you are done. Let it be a competition between you and the PT. Triathlon will be there when you are done.
I had a similar problem a few years ago. I had tendinitis in both knees and I would feel a lot of pain when warming up (until about 10 min into the run) and after that I wouldn’t feel much pain - so I would keep going.
I ignored my doctor saying I needed to stop running for a while and do physical therapy. The only thing I did was to take the prescription anti-inflammatory that would make me feel healed for a short time. And I kept doing this for 6 months. Until one day after a long run on when I woke up and realized I could barely walk because of the pain.
I saw another doctor that told me the obvious: either I would stop running and dedicate to the physical therapy or I would have a short lived running career. Then I finally went with the treatment. I am glad I did it, I don’t feel any pain nowadays (even in marathons) and the in period I could not run I started biking and that led me into triathlons.
The lesson: I know it sucks, but take care of it ASAP and DON’T RUN. It is better to call off your races this year and get this solved for good than to have a miserable year enduring pain in every run and still have the problem. The sooner, the better.
Two words Kittycat, Time Trials! You get to race, its against the clock so if you crash it your fault! And it’s tons of fun!
I was a runner for 17 years before I found the bike. Now I’m 46 and I can’t run the old knees just will not let it happen. So ride that bike and find your local Time Trial series.
I sprained my ankle last April and could not start running again until early July. I was still able to complete the races at the end of the season and did a 1/2 IM on August 1 with a 1:36 half marathon split and then did a 4 hour marathon split at IM Canada. I literally ran 8 times between May 1 and August 28 including those two races yet did okay. I did a ton of cycling and the usual amount of swimming and it worked out well enough that at least at the end of the year I could look back and feel that I did okay at two races.
The season is still a long way off so you have time to heal that knee. Have you considered Yoga? It works for a lot of people.
